Justice Amir to head seven-member committee

News leak probe

Nawaz, Dar, Nisar, Shahbaz hold long deliberations;
committee also has one member each from ISI, MI, IB, FIA

ISLAMABAD: The government on Monday constituted an inquiry committee tasked with the probe of the Newsgate scandal. Justice (retd) Amir Raza has been named as the head of the committee, while one member each from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) are part of the committee. Director of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Usman Anwar has also been included in the committee. Secretary Establishment Engineer Tahir Shahbaz and Ombudsman Punjab Najam Saeed will also be a part of the committee.

In this regard, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar, Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif held long deliberations on the issue.

It is also worth mentioning here that Justice (retd) Amir Raza Khan served as justice Lahore High Court from 1979 to 1991 and also as Advocate General, Punjab, in 1979. Currently, he is also a visiting professor of law in the Punjab University and a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court.

Last month, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif removed Information and Broadcasting  meeting’s leak to media. The article, published in the English daily, Dawn, caused uproar and the journalist who wrote it was briefly hit with a travel ban. The planted story related to National Security Committee (NSC) and National Action Plan (NAP) meetings published in Dawn on October 6 was a breach of national security. Evidence available so far pointed to a lapse on part of Information Minister, who has been directed to step down from office to enable holding of an independent and detailed inquiry,” a statement by PM office said. 

Later, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had said that there was a consensus between the civilian and military leadership whoever leaked the ‘false story’ should be exposed.  Briefing the media about Pervaiz Rashid’s suspension as information minister, Nisar said that on the basis of initial probe, he could say that there was no record as to who leaked the story. Nisar said Pervaiz Rashid did not make any attempt to stop news story from being published. “Pervez Rashid should have told the journalist concerned that the news is incorrect and this should not be published in the national interest… and upon resistance he could have asked, Zafar Abbas (the editor of the newspaper), not to run the story,” he said.